MonitoringForge Community Guidelines

MonitoringForge is specifically geared to foster the development of open source network monitoring and management tools. Our purpose is to allow you to design, develop and download monitoring software; and to use the site in whatever ways helps you accomplish those goals.

That said, we have provided some guidelines –as few as possible –in order to ensure smooth collaboration. We will do our best to enforce these guidelines as well as our Terms of Use. If you have questions, please email community at monitoringforge dot org.

1. Participate

   Ask questions, answer questions, discuss your experiences, post your code, file bugs, fix bugs, open projects, contribute plugins and keep it coming. We rely on contributions from users and developers alike.

2. Be Supportive

   Flaming newbies is so 1995. Everyone has to start somewhere. If someone asks a question with an obvious answer, kindly point them to the correct resource. Within time, they’ll be a contributing member of the 31337 ha><0rz just like you.

   Furthermore, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all. Flames, and insults do not support collaboration and will not be allowed.

3. Be Real

   We encourage you to use your real name –it adds credibility.

   Give real answers and post real information. Trolls are welcome to hang out here. They have no place in collaborative software development.

4. RTFM

   Read The Flippin’ Manual. In other words, use the search tools and try to see if your question was already covered by an FAQ or in another post. If you are absolutely sure that it wasn’t, then feel free to post in the appropriate spot. This will ensure that some übergeek isn’t tempted to flame you. (See item #2.)

5. Stay on Topic

   If you have something to say, be sure you say it in the right place. It would be silly to file a bug report for Windows in a Linux forum. Miscategorized posts are likely to get moved or deleted; which leads us to item #6.

6. No Spam

   We do not need to spell it out; you know what spam is. If you post spam, you will be permanently banned from this site; and if there is any truth behind karma, you will drown in an inbox full of mortgage offers and male enhancement products for eternity.

7. Keep it PG Rated

   No dirty pictures, excessive profanity, inappropriate advances, etc. This site is for monitoring software. (See items #5 and #6.)

8. Respect Copyrights and Trademarks

   Open Source software can use one of dozens of licenses, and each one has different requirements for how you may use, distribute and attribute the code. We respect the license choices of the developers and will support them. If we find you using code that you downloaded here outside of it’s license, we will take action.

   In addition, it’s ok to refer to a trademarked company, product or logo, but appropriate attribution is required.

9. Keep Commerce in the Appropriate Places

   MonitoringForge is not a commerce site but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get paid for your hard work. If you have monitoring products or services to sell, you can post them on the GroundWork Exchange and link back to it from the Forge. We’d love to help you out.

   Please do not post items for sale on MonitoringForge, though.